


something old, something new, something false, something true

by suestohelit



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Gen, Quarantine Romance, how to flirt in a mask, thasmin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26822839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suestohelit/pseuds/suestohelit
Summary: Yasmin Khan has left the police, just in time for a pandemic lockdown with her family. When she wanders into an unfamiliar shop just off the high street, she gets the feeling that her time is about to get a little more interesting...
Relationships: The Doctor/Yasmin Khan, Thirteenth Doctor/Yasmin Khan
Comments: 10
Kudos: 30





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First fic here, will probably be fixing tags as I go. How you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed playing around with the idea of this AU!

Yaz closed her empty locker, sad but relieved at the same time. She knew she'd miss her work colleagues, miss seeing them every day, but this was the right decision. She wanted to help people, had done her whole life. But being a copper just wasn’t getting her there. She was just too burned out, and too disillusioned as well. She shrugged into her own jacket and made her way out of the station for the last time as PC Khan, blinking in the low angled sunlight of another early Sheffield morning.

-

“Sonya, did you do something with the post? I should have gotten a letter by now...” called Yaz as she emerged from her room after showering, her voice trailing off as she realized that her sister hadn't moved from the sofa for the whole afternoon. She couldn’t have collected, much less moved the post. No word then about her application for the internship with the NHS. Maybe tomorrow she'd hear back. She'd been off the force for two weeks now and itchy feet were well and truly setting in. The volunteer training with Samaritans had been a bright spot so far, giving her a taste of what she wanted so desperately, but there was still something missing. She needed to get out of the flat. 

Feeling frustration rising in her chest, Yaz dressed herself in a jumper and jeans, and pulled her hair up into a coiled bun. She grabbed her favourite jacket and stuffed her phone, mask, and keys into her pocket, and then slipped out without a word to her sister. It was cooler today, the sun hiding behind an endless sheet of pale grey clouds. Yaz didn't have a plan or destination, she just needed to be somewhere physically different to distract her from the feeling of stagnation that she’d been swimming in. She vaguely started walking towards and then through the city centre, passing the repetitive high street brand shops which started to give way to more charity shops as well as empty storefronts as she moved past the busiest part of the street. She hasn't been this way since her secondary school days, looking for fancy dress party clothes. The Oxfam bookshop caught her eye and she spent a moment looking at the titles displayed in the window. Summertime beach reading was arranged to catch the eyes of passers-by with signs encouraging people to find their next staycation book.  _ Not a bad idea, really _ though Yaz. 

Tucked just around the corner from the Oxfam bookshop on a pedestrianised side street was a strange little shop with a shockingly old-fashioned front. In beautiful blue and gold lettering, the large smoky-glass window was emblazoned with “T. Ardis. Objets d’art and fine curiosities since 1963”. Behind the lettering, Yaz could make out vague shapes of odd knick knacks and amply filled shelves of books. She had been in this sort of shop before, though never one so full, and a long-lost feeling of interest and excitement flushed through her at the thought of losing herself in endless rooms of obscure objects. With a little a smile she put on the mask and pulled the door, only to find out was locked. Strange. The lights were on and the anti-theft shutters were open, and she could see the till from the door, but she didn’t see anyone inside. She was about to knock when her phone started buzzing with new texts. 

_ Sonya:  _ __ _ You didn’t just pull another runner, did you?  _

_ Mum’s home and I didn’t even know you were gone. Been talking to nobody like a right numpty.  _

Yaz scowled a bit at her sister’s message. It wasn’t her fault that Sonya was addicted to her mobile and couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the rest of the world. 

_ Yaz:  _ __ _ Yea, I’m fine. Just needed some air. Need anything from the shops? Gonna head back soon.  _

_ Sonya:  _ __ _ Nah, Mum’s just been. See you soon, loser x _

She chuckled to herself at that. Her stroppy little sister, so affectionate. It was nice to know that she was still checking up on her, though. Yaz gave another hopeful tug on the firmly locked door handle before turning back to walk home. She’d try to come back tomorrow. Her dad’s birthday was coming up next week and this looked like the right sort of place to find him something memorable. It was nice to think that she actually had the time and energy to find him something interesting for once, instead of another cookbook to try and correct his strange instincts for recipe creation. She quickly got lost in her thoughts, appreciating the light misty rain scudding through the air against her face after taking off her stuffy fabric mask. 

-

Just as Yaz turned the corner, the shop the door flew open, making the string of bells hanging from it swing a wide arc and violently ring against each other. Out burst a woman with a battered box clutched to her chest, one arm under it to stop the bottom from falling out. “Stuck door again! Always at the worst moments. Tricky stuff, wood. Always sticking when you most need to get through.” She made it out through the doorway as the door swung back to close and jammed her foot to stop it from slamming shut behind her and getting stuck again. The bells continued their chaotic cacophony. Satisfied that the door wouldn’t fully close and trap her out of the shop, she rushed round the corner and nipped into the bookshop, depositing the crumpled box on the donations desk in the back. “Another batch for ya, Wilf!” she called, not waiting for an answer before dashing back to her shop, trying not to slip on the cobbles on her way. When she crossed the threshold of T. Ardis, she saw her handwritten sign had fallen again, so she quickly fixed it back in its rightful place on the door. Stepping back, it was a little askew, but no matter. Things to do before closing, better get a shift on! The sign, swinging gently as she went through the rest of the afternoon’s tasks, read “Welcome! Advice and assistance obtainable immediately. Pull FIRMLY to open”.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On her second try, Yaz makes it into T. Ardis and meets the gregarious shopkeeper there.

Yaz was up early the next morning, buzzing with inexplicable excitement about trying to visit the strange shop she'd found the day before. It didn't make much sense, really. She wasn't a keen shopper by any stretch of the imagination, but perhaps Sonya was right and she really did need to get out more. She joined her mum and dad for breakfast, mostly quiet until they were finished eating and enjoying the last of their tea.

"Yasmin love, you look chipper this morning, what's the plan for today? More training?" Asked her mum, always tuned into her state of mind.

"I do have training this evening, yeah. Should be good, the people I'm training with seem really kind, really willing to help. Makes it feel worthwhile."

"That's great love, and that's what you'd hope. Samaritans have to be kind, after all."

"Yeah, it feels more like what I wanted from working with the police. Bit more constructive, too. But that's for later. I'm going round the shops, near the end of the high street where the charity shops are. D'ya need anything while I'm out? Better to avoid too many shopping trips, they're saying." She didn't want to linger too much on comparing her life as PC Khan and her life as unemployed, trainee Samaritan Yaz, so she brought up her planned trip to the odd little shop as a change of subject. Her mum relented and shook her head, turning to her father.

Hakim clearly had another new suspicion nagging at the back of his mind, and as he leaned forward conspiratorially Najia rolled her eyes and left the table while collecting the breakfast dishes. He said "down that end of town there's all sorts of goings on in those empty storefronts, mark my words. I've got a couple of complaints to register with the council, but I still have more evidence to collect about the people behind the pop up stores they're licensing there. Something's not right about them, if you catch my meaning, Yasmin." He nodded to himself at that, and Yaz thanked her lucky stars that she wasn't in a position to confirm or deny his theories any longer. Not that she ever had access to the kind of information he seemed to think he needed.

"Do you want me to join you for a stakeout then, dad? Our can you manage on your lonesome?" She tried her best to hide the smile on her voice, but he wasn't fooled.

"You'll see the pattern soon enough, and you know I wasn't that wide of the mark with the rubbish. That hotel was making a right mess of things with their waste disposal."

Nightmare. It was bad enough to live with a local conspiracy theorist as a father, but to have him turn out to be right? There was no sign they'd ever hear the end of it.

"Right dad, well I'm going to do a little reading for tonight's training before I go. If you need backup then you know what to find me. Mum, hope you have a nice day at work!" She cleared up the rest of the dishes from the table and left her father scouring the local paper for updates, heading into her room with her Samaritan leaflets.

-

Jane sucked air vigorously in after taking an enormous gulp of her piping hot tea, eyes watering. “Every time! Thought it was cool enough…” she said, to no one. She was sitting at her kitchen table in the flat above the shop, surrounded by antique gadgets in various states of deconstruction and reconstruction. Wearing a set of well-loved jeweller’s glasses, she had been working on repairing a recently-acquired mechanical pocket watch. It was beautiful, a skeletonised model showing its inner workings through a semi-circular window on its face. Just a little bit of cleaning, and it would be back in good working order. No wonder she hadn’t noticed her tea still wasn’t cool enough to drink. An alarm starting ringing insistently and she looked up at the timer on the hob – time to open the shop. “Where does the time go?! I’m sure it’s slipping all out of order, I only just sat down! Why didn’t you tell me?” The last question was directed at her cat, who had been surreptitiously toying with the contents of one of the spare parts boxes littering the tabletop. She strolled to Jane at the other end of the table and sat at the edge to look at her intently with a slow blink. “I know Ace, not your responsibility. You’re just the destruction expert around here. Let’s see what the day brings, eh? Got a good feeling about this one!” Pushing the glasses up to rest atop her head, she gently replaced the pocket watch in its box on the table and pushed it to one side, dunked a biscuit in her tea and ate it in a single bite, and scooped the tea, biscuits, and her keys on her way down the stairs with the fluffy tabby trailing behind her.

After flicking the overhead lights on Jane started making her rounds by winding clocks and switching on some of the floor lamps scattered throughout the shop’s show rooms at the back. Lastly, she unlocked the front door and gave it an experimental shove. “Still jammed, are you? C’mon let’s go love, can’t be shut up all of the time!” With a strategic shove of the shoulder, the front door swung wildly open again and Jane grabbed the nearest thing to act as a doorstop. Not getting locked in again today. She cautiously had another go at sipping her tea and found it acceptable, and gulped it down. Stowing the empty mug under the till, Jane pulled one of the weatherbeaten boxes across the front desk and started unpacking it, sorting the pieces of broken down electricals. She quickly lost herself in the process.

-

After a couple of hours Yaz stretched and set her studying aside. There was so much to take in, but she did feel like the training process was worthwhile. And she had certainly earned a break now that she was ready for this evening's training session.

She called out to the other room, "Son, you need anything from the shops?"

There was no answer through Sonya's closed bedroom door, but Yaz wasn't surprised given that it wasn't yet afternoon. She set about getting herself ready to leave the flat. She didn't bother with any makeup since she'd be wearing her mask, but she did take the time to braid her hair and then coil it atop her head. Dark skinny jeans, a pale shirt decorated with little blue embroidered stars, and her blue mask would do for today. She sent a text to her sister saying she'd be out, donned her jacket and made her way out of the flat and down to the shops as she had yesterday. _It feels nice to be going somewhere purposefully after weeks of lockdown and social distancing_ , she thought. The online training sessions had been good socialisation in this time, but she did miss walking around outside.

It was a brighter day today with fewer clouds and no rain in the forecast. There was still a bit of a bite to the air and Yaz was thankful for her jacket. It was coming into autumn and the peeking sunshine was always deceptive on days like today, especially in a city where she’d be in the shade of the buildings as often as not. The bookshop was bustling with activity as she neared it, with a warm-eyed older white man unlocking the door as she passed by. Despite his own mask, she could see that he was giving her a little smile of greeting and she smiled back with a little nod. As she rounded the corner, she was relieved to see that the door to the antique shop was propped open a little bit with a little cast iron statue like a waving hand. She smiled a little to herself in relief and started a bit when the multitude of bells clanged against each other and the door as she pulled it open. She paused for a moment as she stepped inside to let her eyes adjust, and in the meantime noticed the shop’s strong smells of wood and 3-in-1 oil, with that dusty, distinctive antique shop odour laced throughout. And biscuits? Why did the shop smell like biscuits?

Once her eyes adjusted, Yaz was thrilled to find that the shop was exactly what she was hoping for. She could see that the front room led back to several others with a few different doorways forking off in different directions, with odd curiosities covering every surface. _How big is this place?_ , she wondered, noting the disparity between the modest storefront facing the street and the width of the rooms branching off. She took a few steps in from the threshold toward a display case with what looked like telescopes and old navigation equipment when she was startled by a little flash of movement out of the corner of her left eye. She tensed up instinctively and knocked hard into a little glass case on her right, sending its contents rattling around before she could reach around and steady it. “Oh no, no! Oh please don’t be broken!” she cried softly to herself, looking intently at the contents of the case as they once again came to a standstill in their places. A flurry of movement brought the shopkeeper to her side from the desk where they had been working when Yaz was startled and unlocked the case. Yaz cringed internally _Of course I’d break something the second I leave the house after resigning from work_ “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“Let’s see what happened, I’ll just pop the case open and have a look. Accidents happen of course, especially when the shop’s this full. Haven’t had much custom, what with the distancing measures and all. Lots of stock. Great stuff! And more time to fix up stuff needing more attention of course. That’s been fantastic, really. But getting a bit crowded in here! Just put this case here last week, not used to it being there yet either! Nothing glass in there, nothing too fragile. All seems fine, just rolled around a bit. Now, where was this one before? Next to that bronze fella? There, good as new.” The woman deftly rearranged the assortment of objects within the case, righting those which had toppled over. Her movements were quick and precise and whenever she had one of her hands free, she gestured enthusiastically as she spoke.

Yaz was overwhelmed by the torrent of words coming from the woman from the moment she approached the display. She took a step back away from the case while wringing her hands in worry. The woman seemed a little taller than her with a tousled mop of blonde hair to her chin. A strange pair of glasses sat atop her head and she wore a rumpled, oversized white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to above her elbows. The pairing of that with culottes, braces, and well-worn brown boots made for quite the combination. Yaz looked at the floor trying to calm her fears about the terrible implications of breaking a case full of antiques until she heard the other woman confirming that all was undamaged.

“Are you sure everything’s all right? I so sorry, I’m not usually that jumpy! If you want, then I can…” Yaz blurted out just as she locked eyes with the other woman, who had turned to her after closing and locking the case once again. The blonde was wearing a mask too, covered in different yellow-faced emojis against a russet backdrop. It was the maddest thing, but the colours of the mask brought out the gold flecks in the other woman’s hazel eyes. She was looking at Yaz, the embodiment of a question mark, with her eyebrows raised and her eyes puzzled. Yaz realised that she’d been staring. “…then I can tidy it up for you.” she finished weakly, flushing as she realised just how tangled up she was getting. This time of social distancing was doing absolutely nothing for her ability to interact with strangers, never mind the social anxiety. 

The blonde woman cocked her head and Yaz saw the corners of her eyes crinkle, “Nah, it’s fine! Shop’s fine. You don’t need to tidy up! Not in the habit of asking visitors –customers?” She looked quizzically at Yaz and Yaz quickly nodded a yes. “-right, customers, to do the tidying around here. Would have been waiting ages to close up every day! I’m rambling, aren’t I?” She paced back over to the desk where she had been working while she spoke and Yaz found herself trailing behind for some reason. With the question, she managed to come back to herself.

Looking around, Yaz saw plenty of unidentifiable but _interesting_ looking things, old simple machines, but nothing to latch onto as a plausible object to give as a gift. There was just something about a shop like this that made her want to come and stay, but she could hardly tell that to the woman in front of her. “Er yeah, I’m a customer, at least I want to be. I just came across your shop yesterday but the door was locked. I don’t properly know what sort of stuff you have in here but thought it were a good place to find a birthday pressie for my dad.”

At the mention of the locked door, the other woman looked up and then around her suddenly, exclaiming “Oi! What did I tell you about letting people in? Especially lovely people like…” She held out a hand and waggled her fingers to encourage Yaz to introduce herself. To the shop.

She complied, though it felt more than a little silly.

“Yasmin. Well, Yaz to my friends, but…”

“…Yaz here, who must be our friend now that she’s come back despite your naughtiness!”

“Sorry, but did you just talk to your shop?” Yaz was surprised because she had certainly dealt with her fair share of odd folks when she was with the police, but she didn’t find the woman’s behaviour off-putting. It was endearing in a chaotic sort of way, and between her lack of recent face-to-face human contact and the woman’s good-natured manner, Yaz was enjoying herself.

“Yeah, well you know. Sometimes she feels like she’s listening. You must have come round when she locked me in. The wood on the door frame swells up terribly when it’s damp, that is, always, and it gets jammed all of the time. Hence the doorstop.” She hefted the cast iron hand and waved it at Yaz. “Hello Yaz, I’m Jane! What’s your father like, then? Can’t choose a gift without knowing the person!”

Yaz couldn’t help but smile at that and she quickly found herself being led throughout the shop, describing her father’s idiosyncrasies to narrow down what would best suit him. It was odd, because she didn’t feel the usual pang of inadequacy when she said she couldn’t afford one suggestion or another, and she found herself opening up and at ease with the warm, gregarious shopkeeper. In the end she happily settled on a small collapsing telescope which Jane herself had restored. The fact that Jane had restored most of the mechanical or electrical things in the shop was impressive, too. The hour that she and Jane spent felt like the first big breath of air after a long time under water.


	3. Chapter 3

_Really wish I hadn’t stopped running regularly_ , thought Yaz as the sweat trickled down her spine. She could feel that she wasn’t as fit as she had been even a few weeks ago, but it just felt _good_ to be moving. Even though she was only just warmed up, her running clothes were soaked with sweat. Wearing the mask wasn’t too bad, considering. It wasn’t all that different to wearing a neck gaiter in the colder months, so she was adjusting well enough. She could feel her pulse thumping through her body as she navigated the gently rolling paths of Sky Edge. There were a few other runners out as well as dog walkers, but it was early enough that the paths were mostly empty. She was about to make her third circuit around the park when she was caught up by someone rounding a bend to join the path she was on. When she peeked over, Yaz did a double take and was happily surprised to recognise the woman from yesterday by her flash of blonde hair. She was wearing multi-coloured lycra leggings as well as a green-and-blue t-shirt emblazoned with RUN OXFAM across her chest with a white long sleeved running shirt underneath. She had a jacket tied around her waist, and Yaz felt her heart race just a bit faster at seeing her. She self-consciously tried to wipe some of the sweat off of her face with her sleeve and waved a little to catch Jane’s eye. Jane took a funny long stride as she recognised Yaz and waved with both hands and then giving two thumbs up. Her eyes were dancing above today’s whimsical mask which featured comic book speech bubbles.

“Hiya Yaz! I’m calling you Yaz if we’re going to be running buddies! I mean, d’you want to be running buddies, Yaz? I bet you’re a regular, you look pretty fit!” Jane’s voice was muffled a bit by her mask so she must have been shouting for Yaz to hear her so clearly. Her voice dropped suddenly and her eyes widened at the unintentional double entendre. “I mean! Your pace! You’re keeping a really good pace! Shall we run together?”

“I haven’t. Gone running. In six weeks. But yes. I’d love. To run. With you.” Yaz’s lungs were decidedly less strong than Jane’s, but she was happy for the company. She was even happier to see Jane’s reaction to calling her fit, though Jane herself was in amazing shape. “D’you. Come here. Often?”

“Oh yeah! Love running, me. It’s a relief to get out and about and see the world, especially these days. Got a whole circuit figured out from the shop,” she pointed behind herself off to the east without breaking her stride, and swept her arm around to describe a large circle, “and I head over here to Sky Edge for a while before heading back. Lovely loop, this! How about you?” She looked completely relaxed as she ran on and shouted through her mask.

“I live. Just up. There. At Park Hill.” She pointed vaguely to the north, happy that she was managing to keep pace with the taller woman. “How much. More to. Today’s run?”

“Nearly finished for today! A couple more loops round here and then back home. Three days a week or else I get a bit weird.” She glanced over at Yaz after saying that as though she was afraid Yaz might react poorly somehow.

“Great! I’ll do. The rest. With you. If you want?” She hadn’t ever taken to running with others, but Jane seemed to be good company, both in and out of the antique shop. It would definitely give her a better workout if she spent her run trying to hold up her end of a conversation. _Doesn’t hurt that she’s proper gorgeous, either_.

The women made two more circuits through Sky Edge together, chatting pleasantly as they went. As before, Jane’s warmth and excitability brought Yaz out of her shell and she found herself describing the finer points of what constitutes an inedible pakora. All too soon, Yaz reached her limits and knew that she should stop to cool down and stretch. “I think. That’s me done. For today.” The other woman looked crestfallen at this, losing a bit of the spring in her step. “If I don’t. Stop now. I won’t. Be able to. Walk tomorrow! Should we. Plan to. Meet again. Next time?”

Jane slowed right down at this suggestion and switched to a brisk walk so Yaz followed suit. “That’d be brilliant! You want to run again? With me?” Though she was walking now, she still let off plenty of excited energy, broadly gesturing as she spoke. When Yaz smiled and nodded, Jane plunged on “What time d’you want to meet? Same time? Same time’s better for me, yeah. Is that ok? I was gonna come again on Wednesday. Wednesday, then? You don’t have to, if you’d rather keep it as alone time. I understand it’s sometimes better to do things solo…”

Yaz laughed and was happy that she had managed to catch her breath so that she could speak normally. _Here goes nothing_ , she thought. “It would be really nice to run together again, Jane! We’re still doing social distancing if we’re outside exercising, right? Wednesday at the same time works great. Want to exchange numbers so that if something comes up we don’t miss each other?”

The rosy flush to Jane’s cheeks expanded and reached her ears at Yaz’s suggestion and she nodded quietly. “Yeah! Er, that is if you want? I don’t usually run with my phone though, you mind sending me yours?”

“Of course, here I’ll save yours.” She pulled her phone from the pocket of her leggings “What’s your number?” After making a new contact for Jane, Yaz did a missed call. “There, that’s my number for you! But otherwise, Wednesday same time, yeah?”

“Yes! Yeah, absolutely! Running with Yaz, brilliant! I’ll leave you to it. To cooling down, I mean. Or stretching? Don’t forget to stretch! Helps to get back in the swing of things after a break!” Jane gave a bit of a strange two-handed wave, shook her head while scrunching up her face, waved again with just one hand, and then sprang off to run back toward her home. Yaz carried on walking home, deciding to stretch once she was indoors so she wouldn’t catch a chill. It was nearly 9 and the sun was high enough to start warming the air but she didn’t want to risk missing out on Wednesday from stiff legs. _She’s so talkative, don’t know why she were so worried I wouldn’t want to meet up again. Don’t know what she thinks of me, especially since I were so winded I couldn’t get two words out!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another irregularly-scheduled update! Life's busy right now but there's respite on the horizon, so I'll be coming back again soon with the next installment :)  
> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Big thanks to the endless stream of great convo with fellow thasmin folks


End file.
